Details
DOUGLASS, FREDERICK. Autograph letter signed ("Fredk. Douglass") to C.C. Mifflin (probably a White House staff member), Washington, D.C., 19 May 1876. 1 page, 4to, boldly written on lined stationary [With] Clipped signature, dated 15 October 1885, on a small oblong. (2)
DOUGLASS, A DEDICATED REPUBLICAN, ACCEPTS AN INVITATION TO VISIT THE GRANT WHITE HOUSE
"In answer to your note of to day I have to say that it will be convenient for me to call at the Executive Mansion on Monday Morning, and if I learn nothing from you meanwhile requesting otherwise I will call on Monday at eleven o clock....."
In 1871, Douglass had been appointed by Grant to a commission formed to study the question of the annexation of Santa Domingo, but was pointedly snubbed by Grant when he was not invited to a dinner given for the commissioners at the White House. To Douglass, as to many blacks of his generation, the Republican Party was viewed as the party which had ended slavery; in the election of 1872 Douglass campaigned actively on Grant's behalf, and also supported, less actively, the campaign of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. "Loyalty to the party of Lincoln and Grant was, he insisted, the only course for black Americans." (W.S. McFeely, Frederick Douglass, New York, 1991, p. 279). (2)
DOUGLASS, A DEDICATED REPUBLICAN, ACCEPTS AN INVITATION TO VISIT THE GRANT WHITE HOUSE
"In answer to your note of to day I have to say that it will be convenient for me to call at the Executive Mansion on Monday Morning, and if I learn nothing from you meanwhile requesting otherwise I will call on Monday at eleven o clock....."
In 1871, Douglass had been appointed by Grant to a commission formed to study the question of the annexation of Santa Domingo, but was pointedly snubbed by Grant when he was not invited to a dinner given for the commissioners at the White House. To Douglass, as to many blacks of his generation, the Republican Party was viewed as the party which had ended slavery; in the election of 1872 Douglass campaigned actively on Grant's behalf, and also supported, less actively, the campaign of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. "Loyalty to the party of Lincoln and Grant was, he insisted, the only course for black Americans." (W.S. McFeely, Frederick Douglass, New York, 1991, p. 279). (2)